The present invention relates to a surgical cutting instrument. More particularly, it relates to a high speed surgical cutting instruments, such as a bone-cutting bur, usable with various size cutting tips and adapted for minimal interference with surgical site visibility.
Surgical cutting instruments including a cutting tip are usually connected to a motorized handpiece for rotating the cutting tip at various speeds to perform a variety of surgical cutting procedures. Many high speed surgical cutting instrument designs impair visibility of a surgical site during a cutting procedure. For example, high speed surgical cutting instruments often employ a straight bur extender including a ball bearing assembly between an outer support sleeve and a rotating inner cutter shaft. Outer diameters of such outer support sleeves are relatively large (e.g., on the order of 6 mm) to accommodate a ball bearing assembly. Such relatively large outer diameters create blind spots and otherwise impair surgical site visibility during cutting. Other line-of-sight and handling concerns are often encountered with straight bur extenders. For example, the straight support sleeves associated with straight bur extenders are typically in or near a surgeon's line of sight during cutting.
In view of the above, it would be desirable for a surgical cutting instrument to have a reduced diameter and/or angle or bend away from an associated handpiece to improve visibility, ergonomics, or other performance or cost factors. Additionally, it would be desirable to provide a curved bur extender operable at relatively high speeds with small burs (e.g., about 2 mm) as well as larger burs (e.g., burs having diameters greater than about 2 mm, from about 3 mm to about 4 mm, or at least about 3 mm).